Your computer is a lot like an automobile. Both of these require frequent routine preventative maintenance. Both of these will need to remain optimally tuned so that they can be able to deliver optimal performance and to extend their useful lives. Automobiles go through oil changes and tune ups. Thus, PCs also need to get tune-ups of their own.
Spelled out below are a few essential tune-up actions you ought to perform against your machine on a routine basis:
1. Virus scan - Scan your OS for viruses regularly. Even if your antivirus app is configured to identify viruses in real-time, it is still a prudent idea to schedule it to conduct a full scan once per week.
2. Antispyware scans - Spyware has become an increasingly greater menace daily, as it spreads quietly through the Internet to unknowing users who are not aware that not all clicks are created equal. Virus is different than spyware and thus each must be dealt with differently.
3. Hard drive defragmenting - You can accelerate read operations and write operations to and from your computer's hard drive by defragmenting it on a regular basis.
4. Run firewall software - If you spend a great deal of time online, then it is very urgent that you protect your OS around the clock with personal firewall software. This blocks malicious hackers from trying to infiltrate your system.
5. Registry repair and optimization - The system registry is the main database that the operating system uses to maintain sensitive data on all software and hardwaer programs connected to your OS. Gradually over the course of time, it can become corrupted and unoptimized, causing the computer system to slow down or even crash. An optimized registry database is vital to optimal system performance.